#Moderators

[purple-mushroom-cap]

man so that debate huh

[tomorrowusa]

Being a content moderator on Facebook can give you severe PTSD.

Let's take time from our holiday festivities to commiserate with those who have to moderate social media. They witness some of the absolute worst of humanity.

More than 140 Facebook content moderators have been diagnosed with severe post-traumatic stress disorder caused by exposure to graphic social media content including murders, suicides, child sexual abuse and terrorism. The moderators worked eight- to 10-hour days at a facility in Kenya for a company contracted by the social media firm and were found to have PTSD, generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) and major depressive disorder (MDD), by Dr Ian Kanyanya, the head of mental health services at Kenyatta National hospital in Nairobi. The mass diagnoses have been made as part of lawsuit being brought against Facebook’s parent company, Meta, and Samasource Kenya, an outsourcing company that carried out content moderation for Meta using workers from across Africa. The images and videos including necrophilia, bestiality and self-harm caused some moderators to faint, vomit, scream and run away from their desks, the filings allege.

You can imagine what now gets circulated on Elon Musk's Twitter/X which has ditched most of its moderation.

According to the filings in the Nairobi case, Kanyanya concluded that the primary cause of the mental health conditions among the 144 people was their work as Facebook content moderators as they “encountered extremely graphic content on a daily basis, which included videos of gruesome murders, self-harm, suicides, attempted suicides, sexual violence, explicit sexual content, child physical and sexual abuse, horrific violent actions just to name a few”. Four of the moderators suffered trypophobia, an aversion to or fear of repetitive patterns of small holes or bumps that can cause intense anxiety. For some, the condition developed from seeing holes on decomposing bodies while working on Facebook content.

Being a social media moderator may sound easy, but you will never be able to unsee the horrors which the dregs of society wish to share with others.

To make matters worse, the moderators in Kenya were paid just one-eighth what moderators in the US are paid.

Social media platform owners have vast wealth similar to the GDPs of some countries. They are among the greediest leeches in the history of money.

[pabudayszine]

✨We're currently finalizing the list of final contributors for Pabu Days! In the meantime, let's meet the moderators behind the project!

Shy: "Howdy, I'm Shy! Thank you for trusting me with heading Pabu Days, I will do my best for you!! I really like pondering and learning and also have you heard of this really cool guy called Darth Maul?" [@shyranno] Zaana: "Hey, I'm Zaana and I'll be your art mod (woah). I'm a very normal amount of excited for this whole project as being part of a TBB zine has been my dream since I entered the fandom. I'm looking very much forward to what we're gonna create!!" [@zaana]

Helo: "Hi I'm Helo! Shy thinks I'm responsible enough to be your writing mod and I am esteemed by her trust. I've been writing in fandom for over 13 years and I've loved Star Wars for even longer. Also don't read Eternal's intro, she's going to rick roll you." [@talizorahs]

Jill: "Howdy I am Jill and I like Gonky and also Hunter Bad Batch a normal amount. Also I draw things sometimes." [@queenjiru]

Eternal: "Hello there! I'm Eternal, one of the support mods. In the wise words of Rick Astley, I'm never gonna give you up and never gonna let you down. I'll be here to help at any time and happy to talk about Star Wars in a heartbeat!" [@eternalqueenofnaboo]

Empress: "Hi everyone, I'm Empress! I spend 10% of my time writing, 40% thinking about writing, and the other 50% thinking about Crosshair. I’m so excited for this project and for what everyone is going to create!" [@theeasternempress]

And those are our mods! We're all going to do our best to make this zine experience a fun one! See you all soon!✨

[bulletsandarrows-jayroyzine]

With Bullets & Arrows, introducing . . .

Formatting Mod Kimnera!

Kimnera has been a formatting mod on one previous digial zine, which inspired them to create this passion-project. They have written and drawn for JayRoy on occasion and consider Jason Todd and Roy Harper their comfort characters and favourite ship in the DC fandom. This has been their dream project for a few years and they are really excited to make this the best zine possible to honour Jason and Roy as a pairing, but also as individual characters in their own rights. —@kimnera [Ao3 | Bsky]

🦇🏹INTEREST CHECK OPEN🏹🦇

[rr0achy]

[EDIT] Current staff found! Though i may open new positions as time comes on! In regards to my OC-Proship server, i would need the help of volunteering mods to help verify with my partner various permissions settings for final steps. I would ideally launch the server before the end of this year so i can start posting oc prompts in January 2025 <3 If you have a history of moderating discord servers or proshipper discord servers and are 18+ feel free to dm me and apply! (I'm a bit shy and awkward but you're welcome to ask me any questions before-hand!) Thank you so much for your time!!

[honeybee2807]

Hey guys

So I'm creating a HP next gen subreddit where redditors who love the next gen could post without getting downvoted to oblivion.

Anyone would like to be mods? I feel like we need atleast 3 or 4 mods

[nimonabigbang]

One Month Until Nimona Big Bang Writer Sign Ups Close!

If you'd like to participate in the Nimona Big Bang as a writer and/or a writer pinch hitter, please fill out this form as soon as possible and no later than March 1st. The deadline for artists is April 1st.

Thanks so much to all the writers and writer pinch hitters who have signed up so far! Please take a moment to double check that we received your application and that we have you in the correct writing role(s) below. Your name will be in two places if you signed up as both a writer and a writer pinch hitter.

If your username is in blue, then you've already joined the Discord server. If you haven't yet and would like to — it's not required but is a good place to chat with other participants! — please follow this link.

Writers

@ardentandco

@ballistersprostheticarm

@bleezebrew

B-Master (not on Tumblr)

@brucesduque

@dusana-thewitch

@dutifulriley

@eddieshellscape

@em10-nimonafan2009

@fuzzyspottyollie9

@goldenheartphoenix

@ilivelikeimtrying

@j3ankimorit4

@kitschycritter

@knightofburgers

LiveLaughLetmebehappy (not on Tumblr)

@luz-thebrave

@my-head-is-square

@myqueenmarceline

@my-head-is-square

nimona.girl (not on Tumblr)

@nothing-54

@prodigaldaughteralice

@quintilius

@rosemary-frog

@sammys-magical-au

@sapphicnile

@sir-ballister-boldheart

@space-kase

@thegrimshapeofyoursmile

@walrus150915

@yrrtyrrtwhenihrrthrrt

Writer Pinch Hitters

@ardentandco

@em10-nimonafan2009

@euphreana

@just-a-music-and-poetry-lover

nimona.girl (not on Tumblr)

@sir-ballister-boldheart

@space-kase

If you were tagged by accident or if something looks incorrect, please let @random-nerd-posts or @zyrafowe-sny know and we can edit our form with the proper information.

[ghvmhjf]

A meeting with Shedletsky + ignore these two and another player in the bg

[batchedzine]

Meet the Mods!

Introducing our final batch of mods!

🍭Lychgate - @lychgate - Merchandise Mod

🎂 Renee - @reneeofthestars - Social Media Mod

Stay tuned for our Charity announcement, as well as our Contributor Lineup!

[itsreaditandwow2]

Just like I explained in last week's meme.

🤖

[brew-berry-a-trash-artist]

Being a moderator and walking in on people doing exactly what they shouldn’t

The exact same feeling as working at a nursing home and catching an old person stealing a pudding cup

[lacewise]

There’s an existing but increasing trend of people moderating comment sections by leaving up actual bigotry but taking down critical thoughts (even if the criticism is building onto the discussion and not insulting it) and blunt discussion of deeper topics (even, again, when they’re directly relevant to the conversation being had). I don’t like it and what’s more I don’t like propaganda and bigotry being left up because the assumption is that readers will reject it. If you leave enough of it up, even if challenged, eventually people will only remember the bigotry and its justifications.

There’s a proper way to regard lies and half-truths: you say it’s not true, you repeat the lie in a context indicating it’s not true, and then you repeat that it’s a lie. Otherwise you can invoke the illusory truth effect. There is no way, that I know of, to use this process against throwaway comments and threads online if you’re not the original poster.

In some cases, the moderator doesn’t know enough to know the original comment is hate speech, even when it’s overt.

I had a run-in with a person commenting on a popular social media account, and the comment said that talking about your disability online is equivalent to scamming (yes, that’s what they said and yes, the person they were policing is disabled). I confronted them about it, as did several other people.

The comments calling a disabled person talking about their disability a grifter (yes, the word was used) stayed up. The replies condemning this were taken down.

Why? Because calling him a grifter was in line with the original content (which I otherwise have no problems with. Disabled people can be scammers too). The comments defending his humanity, however? Clouded the discussion bashing him. Added nuance where it wasn’t wanted.

What I’m saying is a lot of these “moderators” don’t have the skills, time, resources, credentials, or background to be monitoring discussions. And it’s really hurting community dialogue considering how ubiquitous these platforms are and how difficult it is to find other places online for these conversations.

Some of these comment sections are engaged in toxic positivity and either or thinking. Some in critical thinking bashing and anti-intellectualism (yes, really). Some of them are engaged in misinformation and some are pits of chaos and hate.

But nearly all of them have one thing in common: if you say something unpopular or controversial (so it can be completely factual, just less well-known) your contribution will be taken down, while comments literally calling people slurs will be left up. Leaving many conversations stuck in a surface-level loop.

This is a good way to cement false information but a bad way to encourage learning. It feels like respectability-politics lite. Pretty soon, bluntness (and here I mean informative, and not blunt for bluntness’s sake) will be regarded as bullying but trying to get the point across politely will be regarded as duplicity. I can already see it happening. I do not want to go back. We cannot go back.

People are engaging in potentially devastating long-term harm for short-term engagement. And I’d rather not find out what the cost will be.

[bulletsandarrows-jayroyzine]

With Bullets & Arrows, introducing . . .

Head Mod Alpaca & Kitten!

AK has made fandom her home for more than 20 years now and has participated or had a hand in modding everything from events, zines and communities since their teenage years. Their convention floor zine era is well over, but since entering the DC fandom, AK had been head mod of the Superboy Superzine, and has co-headed and formatted the Tim Drake Flip Zine, and is Format mod of the Bruce Wayne Pinup Zine. Having the opportunity of being head mod for a JayRoy zine, which is one of her comfort ships, is an absolute joy. —@profoundalpacakitten [Ao3 | Bsky | Twitter]

🦇🏹INTEREST CHECK OPEN🏹🦇

[indieanimezine]

💬MOD SPOTLIGHT🗨️

The one who keeps the peace within the server is the Discord Mod, Namaiki!